• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.19-47
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• 2015

In this era of knowledge economy, a variety of virtual communities are proliferating for the purpose of knowledge creation and utilization. Since the voluntary contributions of members are the essential source of knowledge, member turnover can have significant implications on the survival and success of virtual communities. However, there is a dearth of research on the effect of membership turnover and even the method of measurement for membership turnover is left unclear in virtual communities. In a traditional context, membership turnover is calculated as the ratio of the number of departing members to the average number of members for a given time period. In virtual communities, while the influx of newcomers can be clearly measured, the magnitude of departure is elusive since explicit withdrawals are seldom executed. In addition, there doesn't exist a common way to determine the average number of community members who return and contribute intermittently at will. This study initially examines the limitations in applying the concept of traditional turnover to virtual communities, and proposes five membership fluidity measures based on a preliminary analysis of editing behaviors of 2,978 featured articles in English Wikipedia. Subsequently, this work investigates the relationships between three selected membership fluidity measures and group collaboration performance, reflecting a moderating effect dependent on work characteristic. We obtained the following results: First, membership turnover relates to collaboration efficiency in a right-shortened U-shaped manner, with a moderating effect from work characteristic; given the same turnover rate, the promotion likelihood for a more professional task is lower than that for a less professional task, and the likelihood difference diminishes as the turnover rate increases. Second, contribution period relates to collaboration efficiency in a left-shortened U-shaped manner, with a moderating effect from work characteristic; the marginal performance change per unit change of contribution period is greater for a less professional task. Third, the number of new participants per month relates to collaboration efficiency in a left-shortened reversed U-shaped manner, for which the moderating effect from work characteristic appears to be insignificant.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2011

Recently, many companies have started to manage and support CoPs formally at the organizational level because of strategic usability of CoP. These companies are also seeking ways to motivate CoP members to actively participate in their groups. Accordingly, this paper proposes one way of increasing CoP activities by rearranging CoP members. In practice, active CoP members often lead their groups. Therefore, rearranging members can, eventually, be one method to motivate more individuals to participate in CoP activities. This paper first suggests a new approach in order to improve knowledge sharing activities at the organizational level based on rearranging members of current CoPs. Second, a mathematical model is presented which maximizes total BLS (Balanced Level Score) of company A with several constraints. Then a real world problem is changed to a popular problem, VRP to solve this problem. Third, the solution program was developed to find a meaningful solution.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.57-78
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• 2016

Hacking has raised many critical issues in the modern world, particularly because the size and cost of the damages caused by this disruptive activity have steadily increased. Accordingly, many significant studies have been conducted by behavioral scientists to understand hackers and their practices. Nonetheless, only qualitative methods, such as interviews, meta-studies, and media studies, have been employed in such studies because of hacker sampling limitations. Existing studies have determined that intrinsic motivation was the dominant factor influencing hackers, and that their techniques were mainly acquired from online hacking communities. However, such results have yet to be causally proven. This study attempted to identify the causal factors influencing the motivational and environmental factors encouraging hackers to learn hacking skills. To this end, hacker community members using the theory of planned behavior were observed to identify the causal factors of their learning of hacking skills. We selected a group of students who were developing their hacking skills. The survey was conducted over a two-week period in May 2015 with a total of 227 students as respondents. After list-wise deletion, 215 of the responses were deemed usable (94.7 percent). In summary, the hackers were aware that hacking skills are considered socially unethical, and their attitudes toward the learning of hacking skills were affected by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In addition, the characteristics of the online hacking community affected their perceived behavioral control. This study introduced new concepts in the process of conducting a causal relationship analysis on a hacker sample. Moreover, this research expanded the discussion on the causal direction of subjective norms in unethical research, and empirically confirmed that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations affect the learning of hacking skills. This study also made a practical contribution by raising the educational and policy response issues for ethical hackers and demonstrating the necessity to intensify the punishment for hacking.